Medical adhesive bandages typically include a backing, an absorbent pad, and a pressure sensitive adhesive to maintain the medical adhesive bandage in place. As referred to below, "bandage" or "bandages" will be understood to refer to medical adhesive bandages. The bandages are typically used to cover cuts, scrapes and other skin conditions. They are typically packaged individually to maintain cleanliness of the bandages before use. As an added benefit, the individual packaging also provides the opportunity to provide bandages that are sterile until removed from the packaging. Typically, however, sterility of the bandages is only a secondary concern to the primary requirement that the bandages be clean and free of foreign matter before application.
The individual packaging of the bandages, however, results in a number of disadvantages. Packaging the bandages individually increases their cost. It can also increase the waste generated when the bandages are used. Another disadvantage is that the size of the bandage is fixed, i.e., if a wound is larger than the bandage, the user must obtain a larger bandage or open a number of individually packaged bandages to cover the wound. At the opposite end of the size problem is that the wound may be significantly smaller than bandages available to the user and, as a result, use of the bandage may be wasteful because a smaller bandage would be sufficient to cover the wound.
One attempt at providing user-sized bandages has involved providing a roll-form bandage having a continuous backing and continuous length absorbent pad. The user removes the roll from a box or other storage device, cuts a bandage of the desired length from the roll and replaces the roll in the box. In addition to providing opportunities for contamination of the roll if improperly handled, this delivery system requires the user to obtain and use scissors or another cutting instrument to separate a bandage from the roll.
Another attempt involved providing an approximately 10 centimeter long backing and associated pad in sheet from that is packaged in a box or envelope. To obtain a bandage having the desired size, the user removes the sheet bandage from the package, cuts off a piece having the desired size, and replaces the remaining portion of the sheet bandage back in the package. Like the bandages dispensed from a roll, the handling and storage of the larger sheet bandage provides opportunities for contamination if improperly handled and also requires the user to obtain and use a scissors or other cutting device to separate a bandage from the sheet.
Another attempt involved providing a foam tape perforated at 0.5 inch (1.27 centimeter) intervals across the tape and placing absorbent pads on the tape between the perforations to provide bandages that could be individually dispensed by separating the tape along the lines of perforation. This material was also provided in roll form in a box or other storage device. To dispense a bandage, the user removed the roll from the box or other storage device, cut or tore (along a line of perforations) a bandage of the desired length from the roll and replaced the roll in the box. As discussed above, the handling and storage of the bandages in roll-form provided opportunities for contamination of the remaining material because the pads were exposed both during storage and dispensing. Another problem with this delivery system was the difficulty in accurately placing the pads between the lines of perforation. If the pads crossed the perforation lines, it was difficult to tear the tape along the lines of perforation and, in addition, the pad edges would fray.